


Carson Uses WAY Too Much Magic

by writehard_whumpharder



Category: Original Work
Genre: Blood, Carson series, Explosion, Fainting, Hospital, Hurt, Magic Overuse, Magical Exhaustion, Medical, Nosebleed, Original Characters - Freeform, Pain, Recovery, Unconscious, Whump, collapse, dizzy - Freeform, weak
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-27
Updated: 2019-12-16
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:22:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,208
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21586789
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writehard_whumpharder/pseuds/writehard_whumpharder
Summary: Detective Morris calls Carson in to consult on a case for the first time since their falling out. The police don't trust him, forcing him to out of his way to protect everyone from an explosion. He pushes himself way past his limit in a counter-blast of his own and collapses then gets rushed to the hospital.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 18





	1. Chapter 1

To say he was surprised when he got the call would be an understatement. The police hadn’t asked him to consult for months now and Carson figured they swore off magicians all together. But it all made sense when he saw the handcuffs. They didn’t trust him, they didn’t even want him there. But Morris insisted they bring in a consultant, and looking at the crime scene, he was right.

“You know I can take these off at any time, right?” Carson said, holding up his arms so that the metal chains made a jingling noise.

“Humor me,” Morris replied. There must be some kind of law against cuffing an innocent person but Carson just went with it. It seemed to make everyone more comfortable, and it’s not like they were actually restraining him.

He waited with the rest of the force by the curb on the opposite side of the street from a large abandoned factory. The bodies had already been documented and moved, all that was left inside was maybe the biggest ritual circle Carson has ever seen complete with all kinds of minerals, artifacts, a surprising about of human blood, and symbols he barely recognized. Morris had shown him the pictures beforehand to lure him out there.

“Once we get the all clear, you me, Riley, and my officers will go in then you can take a look around. Follow me, do what I say, and for the love of god, don’t touch anything,” Morris instructed. Riley stood on his right, seemingly ignoring Carson which didn’t feel very fair since it was _her_ life he was saving when he went dark. It’s quite possible that Morris has simply been a detective for so long, nothing phases him anymore. Riley on the other hand was brand new to the field and already in way over her head.

Carson pulled his collar up to cover his neck and burrowed into his coat. It was nearly December and if he hadn’t enchanted his coat to absorb lingering energies in order to heat itself he’d be freezing his ass off right now. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Riley stave of a chill. _Serves you right_ , Carson thought bitterly. Still though he did have some desire to reconcile.

“That tea must be cold by now,” he said, pointing at the cup she had wrapped in her hands.

“It’s fine.” She said, her voice clipped.

“Let me see it,” he said. Riley finally met his eyes for the first time that night and reluctantly handed it over. It took Carson all of two seconds to heat it back up to it’s original temperature. Besides healing, manipulating temperature was the smoothest magic he could do on the fly since it just dealt with adding or subtracting raw energy. Riley’s eyes lit up when she saw steam waft through the hole in the lid. Carson handed it back to her and she immediately went back to cradling the cup in an effort to keep her fingers from freezing.

“Thanks,” she said, then turned away. Not wanting to push his luck Carson turned away too, taking a seat on the edge of the curb while they waited. Morris spouted a bunch of nonsense into his radio until he finally got the all clear.

“Alright, you’re up,” he said. Carson clambered to his feet and followed behind. Ten officers made a semicircle around them and walked carefully as if the building was rigged with landmines.

“Hey, why are we doing this is the middle of the night?” Carson asked suddenly.

“Would you rather come back in the morning?” Morris countered.

“No…”

“That’s what I thought.”

Half a dozen flashlight beams lit up the path before them. Carson looked over Riley’s shoulder to get a glimpse of the ritual circle he was told about. It easily spanned 50 feet, covering more area than his entire apartment, after the upgrade. Since the building had been abandoned and cleared out years ago, the circle was drawn directly on the cement floor. Once everyone stopped moving Carson took it as his que to step around and start observing.

An uneasy feeling washed over him as he stepped inside the circle, like the air itself held a static charge. Something big had happened there alright. His first thought was that the circle had been made to kill all six victims at once but a circle this size, powered with this much energy, could kill at least twice that many people. He took his notebook out of his coat pocket and sketched the symbols he could distinguish in the low lighting, he’ll have to look at the photos that were already taken later to pick apart the rest of them. Now to get on with what he really came to do.

Taking a steadying breath, Carson closed his eyes. When he opened them again his vision was filled with the vibrant, dense color of magic. Each hue probably belonging to a different magician. It was so overwhelming he could hardly see around him.

“What is it?” Riley asked as he blinked against the bright lights shining into his eyes, though the room still appeared dark to everyone else.

“There’s a lot of magic here, it’s hard to sort th-” Carson trailed off. Something had felt wrong about the place since the moment they got there but with each passing second he grew more and more anxious. His body was trying to warn him about something his natural and supernatural senses couldn’t quite pick up. It didn’t make sense. But it didn’t have to.

He looked up at the ceiling then to everyone around him, “It’s a trap,” Carson whispered.

The cops’ flashlights started to flicker erratically as a pressure built around them. The taste of metal filled Carson’s mouth. It was a trap, and 12 stories worth of concrete was about to fall on them when the bomb, whatever it was, went off. He didn’t need a timer to know that he only had seconds to prepare.

“Get close to me!” He barked. Riley and Morris came to his sides instantly but the other officers held their position. “Get close! I can’t cover that much space!” He screamed. They inched closer, just barely, keeping at least five feet of distance between them and Carson. Those stupid cops still thought he was the biggest threat there.

He dropped to one knee and put his hand out flat on the cold, cement floor. Closing his eyes he started the process of shutting out certain sensory input and focusing entirely on the energy about to reach explosive levels. Making a shield around the three of them that could protect them from the force of the blast along with all the falling debris was hard enough. The falling rubble alone could easily bury them alive.

A sharp pain split through his skull as he forced the shield to go wider.

10…

9…

8…

7…

Something warm trickled down Carson’s face as he pushed the shield even farther, still not coming close to the officers standing around stupidly, waiting for something to happen.

6…

5…

4…

3…

Riley gripped his shoulder in fear, crouching down as much as she could. Morris threw one of his big arms around her protectively.

2…

1…

The sound was so loud that it didn’t sound like anything at all. It was more like he felt the assault on his eardrums. Dozens of good old fashioned C4 explosives went off at once, staggered across each floor. The frame of the old factory didn’t stand a chance.

Waves of pure heat preceded the blast and Carson had to time it perfectly. Just as the first floor was about to fall and clouds of fire burst from the columns, he used everything he had in one quick counter-blast of his own. Carson could only shield the officers for a split second so instead of holding it he expanded the perimeter, redirecting all the energy outward.

The light as both energies collided was brilliant and blinding. If anyone could still hear at this point it would have sounded like the crack of lightening. Sparks of energy splintered through the air around them which started to swirl madly across the half-dome shield. Carson grit his teeth against the pain in his head from going way beyond his limit. He’d never moved that much energy at one time before and it made it difficult to keep track of how much of his own life energy he was tapping into. The blood pounding through his head was a small comfort, letting him know that he was still alive as the rest of the world faded away.

Then suddenly it was over.

Slabs of cement the size of cars slid down the side of his barrier making a pile in the form of a ring around them. When the current of energy running through Carson finally stopped and the defensive magic dissipated, smoke and dust blew in from all directions. Up until that point the center of the circle had been entirely untouched. Riley and Morris didn’t feel so much as a strong breeze.

Everyone was stunned at first. The police officers were alive but badly injured and Riley and Morris were the only two who came out of it mostly unscathed. Riley coughed on a lungful of smoke and started feeling around in front of her for Carson. It took a second but her hand found his leg and she pulled his limp body into her lap. The air was still hot and dense, making it nearly impossible to see through but the feeling of wet sticky blood was unmistakable to her finger tips.

“Hggughhh, C -Carson,” she choked out his name between coughs. He didn’t stir

No one saw the exact moment he went down but it wasn’t a dramatic, stumble to his knees and fall to the ground type of collapse. One second he was awake, then the next his vision went white. He fell like a puppet cut from its strings. Riley continued to touch his face and say his name but the sounds coming from her mouth quickly devolved into desperate wheezing.

Morris doubled over, coughing harshly. “How is he?” He asked.

Riley shook her head clear and struggled to speak, “unconscious, there’s… a lot of blood.”

Morris stopped shining his flashlight over the mound of rubble and knelt down next to them. “Where from?”

“Um, his nose and… both ears,” she sniffled.

Morris pulled out his radio and called for backup then started to check on the other cops who were starting to come to.

–

More police officers starting climbing over the rubble, followed in by several paramedics.

“Is everyone ok, Detective?” A cop called out. He was one of the few who stayed behind and watched the whole thing go down from an uncomfortably close distance.

“We got four men needing medical attention, one civilian,” Morris stated. The cop slid the last few feet down towards them and caught himself on Morris’s arm.

“What the hell happened? I’ve never seen an explosion like that in my life,” the young police officer exclaimed.

“I think something strange happened when the explosion met Carson’s magic.” Morris rubbed his chin, equally stumped.

“You mean that blue light was him?!” He asked, pointing at where Carson still laid limp on the ground.

Morris pushed the guy aside when two paramedics approached with a stretcher.

“Take him out first, he’s a civilian,” Morris ordered. The rest of the police who weren’t as well protected were pretty banged up but none were in life threatening condition. Carson he wasn’t so sure about.

A woman knelt next to him and Riley, checking his heart rate, breathing, and pupils, before deciding it was safe to move him.

“Breathing is strained, patient is unconscious and unresponsive. Heart rate weak and thready.” She told her partner.

Riley felt a sharp pain in her chest. She assumed he just passed out like he usually did not that he was in actual danger. The other paramedic helped lift him onto the stretcher while she watched helplessly.

“You go with him, I’ll handle things here,” Morris told her. She nodded and sniffled again.

They made their way over to one of the waiting ambulances where they put an oxygen mask on Carson and hooked him up to some monitors.

“Is he gonna be okay?” She asked.

The paramedics exchanged looks before answering, “He’s in good hands. The doctor at the hospital will be able to tell you more.” The man said. She listened to each beep the heart monitor made and held one of Carson’s hands.

–

When they got to the ER and the doctor starting asking questions Riley was glad she came along. There wasn’t a scratch on him, no obvious injuries or illness, so naturally they were confused about his condition.

“Patient name?” The ER doctor asked.

“Carson Hall,” Riley responded.

The doctor stopped what he was doing and turned to the nurse, “Admit him to a private room and page Dr. Owens.” He sighed then turned to Riley. “Please wait in the waiting room, a nurse will give you the room number once he’s settled in. The patient is in stable condition for now.”

fThe doctor cut her off, “Oh we know Carson. Dr. Owens specializes in this field.” He said, being deliberately vague. Saying the word “magic” in a crowded Emergency Room would only get people worried. She nodded in understanding then went to wait while they moved him to another room.

By the time Riley made her way up to the third floor Dr. Owens had already stopped by and a nurse was finishing up his IV.

He still looked deathly pale against the washed out hospital walls but at least he looked comfortable under a pile a blankets and someone had thoroughly cleaned the blood off his face. About five minutes of quiet passed before the door swung open suddenly.

Daniel walked in, closing the door hard enough to make a loud thud. He looked pissed.

Taking a seat in one of the uncomfortable chairs for guests he crossed his arms and waited for Riley to explain.

She shrunk under his gaze, there really was no excuse for it. They called him in for the first time in months and he was already in the hospital. Instead of protecting him like they were supposed to they forced him to protect all of them because someone didn’t bother to check each floor of the building.

“Well… there was… an explosion, and…” she started.

“And?” Daniel demanded.

“He used up too much energy shielding everyone, I’m sorry…” she added. “It was extreme for any magician, let alone one like him who isn’t used to doing that kind of magic. You should have seen it.”

“You mean this?” Daniel held up his phone which displayed one of the many news articles that had already started to come out. The title read “ _Unknown Blue Explosion in the WareHouse District: Aliens?_ ”

“Yeah, that.” She mumbled shamefully.

“Well now that that’s all cleared up you’re free to go,” Daniel said, reaching a new level of irony seeing as Riley was the cop in this situation.

“I guess I should go report back then,” she said reluctantly, surprised that she didn’t want to leave.

“You do that,” Daniel replied coldly.

After she left, Daniel stayed for a while then went back home. As much as he wanted to stay by his side he knew Carson wouldn’t be waking up for a few days so he might as well keep going to work in the meantime.


	2. In the Hospital

After being admitted to the hospital Carson spent six whole days unconscious before slowing starting to come back to himself.

When his mom heard what happened she wanted to rush down there immediately to see him but Daniel managed to convince her that that wouldn’t be necessary. He was stable, spiked two high fevers but each went back down by the next morning. It was just a matter of waiting.

The nurses tended to him diligently and Daniel managed to stop in once a day after work. They’d been in this position before but somehow this time felt different. The anxiety that welled up in Daniel’s chest never seemed to go away and he was getting more and more restless, wishing Carson would just wake up already.

Some time on Tuesday night he finally stirred. Just a twitch at first, then he managed to pry open his tired eyes and look around the room. His vision was blurry, actually his whole body felt blurry. He managed to move his hands a little and one came in contact with a piece of plastic, he pressed the button out of muscle memory, still not quite sure what he was doing.

A nurse came in right away armed with a pen light, Carson’s one true nemesis. He groaned when she tried to shine it in his eyes, making him feel sore all over again.

“Can you tell me your name?” She asked.

Carson knew damn well who he was but getting his mouth to form the words was a bit of a struggle, “Carson Hall,” he said, barely above a whisper.

The nurse nodded, “and do you know where you are, Carson?” She asked sweetly.

His eyes swept the room again, unable to make sense of what he was seeing. “Not.. my bed.” He said finally.

“That’s right, you’re in the hospital.” She told him. Yeah that makes sense, he thought to himself. Seeing as he looked ready to pass out again any second the nurse kept the questions simple.

“I’m Nurse Emma, you can press that button any time you need anything. Before you go back to sleep can you squeeze both my hands for me?” She asked, and Carson did, albeit a little weakly. “And wiggle your toes.” Carson complied. “Alright, you can go back to sleep now, Dr. Owens will stop by in the morning.”

Carson didn’t catch much of what she said after saying he could go to sleep. He turned on his side away from her and realized his muscles felt stiff and achey after not moving for several days. Maybe it would be a good idea to do some stretching. Nah..

–

When Carson woke up again it was light outside and when the nurse came by he didn’t remember waking up the night before. Today he was a lot more capable and even managed to drink some water. Nurse Emma wheeled a table up to the side of the bed and left him his phone and the tv remote.

Carson couldn’t remember the last time he watched cable TV but he turned it on just for the hell of it. It was preset to the local news channel which was, unsurprisingly, covering the event that happened last week. A woman stood in front of where the old building stood, most of it was on the ground now.

“Police have yet to comment on the strange explosion Wednesday night. Witnesses from the neighborhood reported seeing a strange blue light along with the explosion leading to much speculation about its cause. Some believe it was a chemical reaction from residual particles from when the factory was in use. Others believe the event was supernatural in origin. Here are some overhead views of the factory.” The camera switched to prerecorded shots from above, taken by a helicopter. Carson nearly split out his water seeing just how extensive the damage was. There was a perfect circle in the center about six feet across surrounded by mounds of rubble covering the entire block. No wonder he felt so drained. Grainy CCTV footage from a nearby building caught the explosion. This time Carson really did choke on his water. He coughed harshly but kept his eyes glued to the screen. At first there was a burst of smoke and fire blasting through all the windows. The light was overwhelming but the flames were quickly snuffed out by an even brighter light. The building exploded outward, pushed by an invisible force creating a split second of distinctly blue light. It reminded him vaguely of a lightening strike in reverse. The whole thing happened in a matter of seconds and it was hard to tell exactly what was going on. But one thing was certain from the video, it was NOT a normal explosion.

When that channel went to commercial he switched it to another news channel, it seemed though that everything but the local news had already moved on to bigger things. He turned the TV off and leaned back against his pillow, oddly exhausted. Just sitting up for a little while sapped away what little energy he had managed to gain back. Carson would have gone back to sleep if his nurse didn’t come in at that exact moment followed in by the doctor. She set a tray of food down on the table next to him then left them alone.

Dr. Owens flipped open a chart that he didn’t even notice was hanging from his bed.

“Good morning, Carson. Do you remember me? I’ve been your doctor several times before in cases like this, but you always manage to check yourself out before I get the chance to discharge you properly.” He said. Carson did think the guy looked vaguely familiar.

“Speaking of which, can I go now?” Carson asked.

Dr. Owens laughed heartily, “I’d like to see you try.” He said. “Actually I came to share your test results with you and suggest that you stay an extra few days to fully recover. While I can’t see the human body the way you do Mr. Hall, our medical tests are quite accurate, and you are not exactly the picture of health.”

Carson leaned back and prepared himself for the scolding that usually followed any time someone called him by his last name.

“When you were first admitted Wednesday night I ordered a full body CT scan.” He handed him several photos which Carson held up against the light steaming in from the windows. “Everything appears to be normal but if you’ll look closely at the skull here, these spots show bleeding which explain why you experience nosebleeds and in this case, bleeding from the ears, as a result of overusing your magic. It is a very minor intracranial hemorrhage, virtually harmless, but you still need to be very careful. If something were to block the blood flow inside the skull that could cause serious damage.”

Carson scratched the back of his head. He figured it went something like that but hearing it from the doctor made it sound a lot more scary. He handed Carson a second CT scan this one just showing his head.

“We took this scan three days later on Saturday. You may not be able to see the subtle difference but this scan is completely clean, no bleeding or abnormalities so we can confidently say now that you’ve recovered without any serious damage.”

“So-”

“There’s more,” the doctor interrupted. “We also did some blood work.”

“Sounds expensive,” Carson remarked. He internally groaned knowing that if this hospital bill was too high he’d have to go do a job and land himself in the same exact situation.

“Everything is within normal range except your white blood cell count is a little elevated in response to whatever havoc you wreaked on your immune system. You also appear to be a tad anemic.” He stated. Where doctors usually this blunt? “Normally we’d discharge you once your blood count returns to normal but I’ll make you a special deal. Once you can stand by yourself you’re free to go.” He said with fake cheer. “Any questions?”

Carson went over the information overload the doctor just dropped on him once more in his head. He only had one question, “is that a challenge?” He leaned toward the doctor.

“No, stay in bed for now. I’m serious. If you need to go to the restroom or get up for any reason press the call button and a nurse will come to assist you. Get plenty of rest over the next few days and make sure to eat well. I’ll check back in with you then.” Dr. Owens said then turned to leave.

Carson picked up his phone and texted Daniel, “SOS, I’m bored.”

He stared at his phone impatiently. Daniel would be at work at the book store at this time so he was probably busy.

It only took him couple minutes to respond but it felt like forever. “When did you wake up?”

“A lifetime ago. Save me,” Carson texted.

“I can’t leave no one else is here.”

“NooOoOo,” Carson whined, not caring how needy he sounded. “I’ll just check myself out then…” he threatened.

“Don’t move.”

Carson smiled and sat back to wait. He settled on playing phone games until then but at some point his eyes started getting tired and he must have fallen asleep.

–

“Dude, you begged me to come and you’re not even awake?” Daniel said, punching his shoulder lightly before sitting down.

“Hmm?” Carson groaned. He stretched for a solid ten seconds before looking at Danny, “what?”

Danny sighed, “Nevermind.”

“Ugh, I can’t believe I have to stay here. It’s, it’s not even comfortable…” he said, feeling his eyelids grow heavy. Daniel watched as Carson nearly fell asleep again.

“Oh wait…” he said suddenly, sitting up. “I gotta go to the bathroom.”

“Do you need help?” Danny asked, a little concerned about how out of it Carson still was.

“Psshh I’m a grown man I can-” Carson swung his legs over the side of the bed and stood with confidence only to black out almost instantly.

Daniel felt a little guilty for not stopping him. He crumpled to the ground so fast there was nothing he could have done but he still looked around to make sure no one saw that before tip toeing over to him.

“Carson buddy, you okay?” Danny asked, poking his shoulder. No response. “Alright, back to bed.”

He scooped him up and deposited him back on the bed, pulling the covers up over him. Carson’s head lolled against the pillow and his eyelids fluttered open.

“What happened?” He asked, blinking away the spots in his vision.

“You tried to go to the bathroom and failed horribly,” Danny replied flatly.

“Oh yeah, I still need to do that,” Carson attempted to sit up.

“Just slow down a second.” He said, then noticed the tray on the table next to him. “Hey is this your breakfast? It looks you didn’t even touch it.” Danny said. He removed the lid and grabbed the fork. “This cornbread doesn’t look half bad.”

“I’m not hungry,” he said, pushing the table aside.

“Oh come on.”

“No. I’ll eat something later.”

“I shouldn’t have told your mom not to come. Maybe we can call her up so she can tell you to stop being a little bitch and eat your food,” Daniel said. Not to be mean, that’s just exactly what his mom would say if she were there.

Carson put a hand over his eyes. “I have a headache okay? It looks gross right now.” He muttered.

“Fine. Now do you want me to help you up or do you want to call a nurse to help.” Danny suggested.

Carson couldn’t exactly wait until he was fully healed to go to the bathroom so he swallowed his pride and accepted his help.

Daniel held out his arm for Carson to hold then prepared to support all his weight as soon as he was on his feet. Carson wobbled sharply and leaned into Daniel. Even then the process was exhausting and he had to take a moment to catch his breath before Daniel walked him the rest of the way.

Carson took slow, careful steps, then once he was inside the bathroom and holding onto the safety bar Danny shut the door to give him some privacy. He felt pathetic struggling so much to do something so simple.

By the time he was back in bed Carson was too dizzy to function. Daniel sat on the edge of the bed looking worried. “Is it that bad?”

Carson tilted his head back and covered his eyes with his hand, “eh” he waved him off to show he wasn’t ready for questions at the moment.

Danny checked his phone, it was almost time to head back to the shop and reopen. Taking an early lunch break was pushing it as it is.

“I have to go back to work now but I’ll pack a bag for you and bring it here after I’m done. Try not to die of boredom until then,” he said.

Carson groaned, “No promises.”

–

He ended up staying another two days. The hours spent alone in his room were agonizing, even after Daniel came by and left him his laptop and some clothes. If he was being honest, Carson just didn’t like hospitals. They were filled with sick and injured people, people he could save but didn’t. Instead he laid in bed while people suffered and died.

Carson pulled his pillow down over his face in frustration. At least he’d be going home soon. All he was waiting for now was someone to come pick him up. Riley had sent numerous texts asking if he needed anything, obviously feeling guilty for what happened. Morris seemed to be taking it even harder. He stopped by yesterday with a card signed by all the officers who were still alive because of him. All in all he now had 10 get out of jail free cards which hopefully he wouldn’t need to use.

Carson’s phone buzzed, “Almost there.” Danny texted. He looked around the room which was now a mess of his things. Very slowly he went around picking up socks and charging cords which he threw back into his bag. Lastly he put on his shoes and coat and sat on the edge of the bed to wait.

Dr. Owens stopped by with his discharge papers just as Daniel arrived.

“So where’s the bill? How many thousands of dollars do I owe you now?” Carson asked the doctor.

“Nothing, it’s covered under your healthcare plan,” Dr. Owens said then left after all the papers were signed.

“I have a job _and_ healthcare, take that!” Carson cursed at no one in particular.

“Most people are employed, it’s nothing to get excited about.” Danny said, but he laughed anyway. “Let’s go.” He crouched down for Carson to get on his back.

Carson of course pretended not to know what he was doing, “what? I can walk by myself, you know. It’s been over a week.” He defended.

Danny rolled his eyes, “fine but I _will_ laugh at you when you fall on your face before we even make it out of the hospital.”

Carson pouted for a moment before giving in. Daniel managed to carry him and his bag without a strain.

“Did you get even lighter? My nephew weighs more than you,” he teased.

“Fuck off,” Carson replied, unable to think of a more sophisticated comeback.


End file.
